Three independent children’s publishers specializing in board books and picture books, all in California, shared with PW their conviction that families need bilingual and culturally attuned early readers.
As Patty Rodriguez, who cofounded Lil’ Libros in Los Angeles with her friend Ariana Stein, puts it, “The future is bilingual.” In August, Rodriguez and Stein marked the 10th anniversary of their publishing venture, which boasts a catalog of more than 100 board books, picture books, puzzles, and games, distributed by Gibbs Smith.
Lil’ Libros publishes 10–15 books a year, Rodriguez says. These have included board book biographies of Selena, La Pola, and Pura Belpré; the Vámonos travel series featuring Los Angeles, Oaxaca, and Tegucigalpa; and a popular First 100 Words in English and Spanish. Forthcoming titles depict an Easter egg hunt (Where Are?/¿Dónde están? Los Cascarones, Feb. 2025) and celebrate Mexican ice pops (Paletas, Feb. 2025); in 2026, Lil’ Libros will publish a picture book about L.A.’s first food truck, written by Mexican American screenwriter Erick Galindo.
In addition to Rodriguez and Stein, Lil’ Libros has a team of six full-time staffers, plus part-timers who help with events. “We all identify as Latina, which I’m very proud of,” Rodriguez says, noting that Lil’ Libros goes beyond ordinary book fairs to connect with readers. “Wherever our community is, we like to be there. Books are very much part of the human experience, and they should be part of every celebration, whether it’s a carnival or Día de Muertos festival. That was always our strategy: putting books out in the view of our community.”
In order “to expand our language profile,” Rodriguez says, Lil’ Libros signed a strategic partnership with San Francisco–based bilingual children’s publisher Bitty Bao in 2022. Founded in 2020 by former elementary school teachers Lacey Benard and Lulu Cheng, Bitty Bao releases between two and five board books per season, each appearing in three editions: Mandarin with traditional characters, Mandarin with simplified characters, and Cantonese.
Benard writes and Cheng illustrates the board books, including Dragon Boat Festival, Counting with Dim Sum, and the forthcoming Next Stop: Taipei! (May 2025), and the two design wooden toys to complement the text, such as a rolling dragon boat and a dim sum set with pretend dumplings. In July, Bitty Bao released its first picture book, The Legend of Chang’e, written by Ling Lee and Eric Lee and illustrated by Rachel Foo; author-illustrator Serene Chan’s picture book, Fortune Cookie Dreams, is slated for April 2025.
“For the first two and a half years, it was us by ourselves, self-publishing and self-distributing,” and getting the word out via social media, Benard says. Partnering with Lil’ Libros enhanced Bitty Bao’s distribution and discoverability, and Benard says its Chinese/English titles are now available in Canada, Australia, Singapore, and the U.K.
A mélange of cultures
Gloo Books likewise emphasizes education and inclusion, publishing board and picture books in English with diverse cultural representation and some with words in translation. CEO Karen Chan established Gloo in L.A. in 2021 with her self-published What’s That?, illustrated by Basia Tran, the story of a Chinese American boy and the lunches he brings to school.
Chan branched out with Baby Go! travel board books and a Very Asian food series inspired by journalist Michelle Li’s hashtag; the latest releases are A Very Asian Guide to Japanese Food, written by Donabe cookbook author Naoko Takei Moore and illustrated by Yoko Baum, and A Very Asian Guide to Malaysian and Singaporean Food, written by educator Shuli de la Fuente-Lau and illustrated by Ann Jaafar. Fuente-Lau’s book explores how Malaysian and Singaporean cuisines influenced one another due to the intersection of Chinese, Indian, and Arab trading routes. This “melting pot of so many different cultures has its own unique identity and language too,” Chan says.
Gloo launched as a direct-to-consumer and self-distributed publisher, and it’s added titles by celebrities and activists, including the civic engagement book Calling All Future Voters; a fairy tale adaptation with the Martin Agency, Princess and the Pea-tition; and a boys’ dance story, Martee Dares to Dance. “Sending invoices, receiving purchase orders, and fulfillment does take away from focusing on what we really want to do, which is making more books,” Chan says, so she’s signed a distribution deal with Baker & Taylor, effective January 2025.
All three publishers are broadening their readerships in the U.S. and internationally. “A lot of people have the misconception, ‘We’ve never sold bilingual books or books that are diverse, so that means there’s no market for them’—but that couldn’t be further from the case,” Bitty Bao’s Benard says. “There are so many customers; we’ve had people pay the international shipping for our books. It’s a wild ride, trying to show people there’s a hole in the market. But it’s definitely there.”
